King County Executive Girmay Zahilay has proposed spending $100 million to protect roughly 1,500 acres of parks, farmland, forests and salmon habitat across 57 projects countywide. The funding package, unveiled at Seattle's Cheryl Chow Park in the Rainier Valley, would touch everything from a gravel parking lot along the Duwamish River slated for conversion into native salmon habitat to a P-Patch and orchard next to Habitat for Humanity affordable housing in Bellevue.
Zahilay said the proposal would give communities “clean air, clean water and places for recreation,” according to KOMO News, which first reported the details of the funding request. The package also includes permanent protection for a popular park in SeaTac and would restore salmon habitat alongside farmland that supports the region's local food economy, the station reports.
Where the Money Comes From
The bulk of the funding, $86.7 million, would come through King County's Conservation Futures program, per the station's account. Another $13.8 million would be drawn from the county's six-year parks levy, which voters renewed in 2025 with more than 70% approval and which includes money earmarked for acquiring open space.
The Conservation Futures money is tied to a property tax voters restored to its original statutory rate in 2022, when the conservation futures tax restoration measure also cleared with more than 70% approval. That levy is capped by state law at 6.25 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation under RCW 84.34.230, a ceiling that worked out to roughly $50 a year for the owner of a median-priced King County home in 2023, according to the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks.
A First Major Test for Zahilay
The proposal marks the first major environmental capital request of Zahilay's administration since he took office in November 2025, succeeding Dow Constantine after 16 years as executive, per KNKX Public Radio. Zahilay, who won 54% of the vote, became the youngest person and the first refugee and immigrant to hold the office at age 38. Hoodline covered his swearing-in and his administration's early priorities around service and structural reform.
The recommendations behind the $100 million package came from the Conservation Futures Advisory Committee, a 16-member volunteer board that represents all nine King County Council districts and includes both urban and rural communities, KOMO reports. The committee reviews applications for open-space preservation funding as part of its ongoing role, and the full package will need approval from the King County Council before any money moves.
Chasing a 65,000-Acre Target
The 1,500-acre proposal is part of King County's broader Land Conservation Initiative, which aims to protect 65,000 acres of remaining open space including urban green space, farmland, forests, river and trail corridors, and natural areas. County analysts have projected that accelerating land purchases now, rather than spreading them across decades, would save $14 billion to $15 billion compared with piecemeal long-term acquisition, according to the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks. The initiative was launched partly in response to King County adding roughly 100 residents a day, or 180,000 over a decade, putting sustained pressure on shrinking natural land.
Since the Conservation Futures grant program began in 1982, it has permanently protected more than 100,000 acres of open space, natural lands, community gardens, farmland and regional trails, the county's parks department notes. This year's request would follow a similar pattern of large annual allocations: King County put $107 million toward conserving 3,000 acres across 52 projects in January 2025, after a $109 million round in December 2023 that doubled prior annual funding levels.
Equity Rules and Habitat Stakes
The Conservation Futures program also includes a match waiver policy that reduces or eliminates the usual 50% local matching requirement for projects proposed in designated open space equity opportunity areas, according to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. That waiver is designed to let smaller cities and community organizations in underserved neighborhoods secure full county funding without providing local matching dollars, a policy that could shape how the plan's South Seattle and South King County projects move forward.
The Duwamish River salmon habitat component connects to a broader regulatory backdrop: Puget Sound Chinook salmon have been listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act since March 1999, per NOAA Fisheries, creating pressure on local governments to restore river corridors and spawning habitat. Hoodline reported earlier this month on a fish die-off near the I-90 light rail line in Lake Washington that included Chinook among the carcasses, underscoring the vulnerability of the region's salmon runs. The county's recent purchase of a Cedar River corridor property to prevent an asphalt plant, which Hoodline also covered, reflects the same conservation push now driving the $100 million request.
State law under RCW 84.34.240 also allows counties that have collected Conservation Futures levies for at least 20 years, or preserved at least 400 acres, to spend up to 25% of annual tax receipts on maintaining already-acquired properties, according to the Washington State Legislature. Whatever final shape the $100 million package takes, it must still clear the nine-member King County Council, where individual project allocations across urban, rural and tribal watershed priorities are expected to face detailed review.
